Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 100, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1911 — TIGER TAKES AN AUTO RIDE [ARTICLE]

TIGER TAKES AN AUTO RIDE

His Interest in the Engine Made the Chauffeur Get Out and Thjnk— Animal Finally Bold. New York.—Russell Hopkins, a New Yorker who spends his winters in Cuba and Palm Beach, left the St. Regis for the south with a pet pink and white Formosa rabbit in his pocket. He said it was all that remained of a private zoo he had collected at his summer home at Irving-ton-on-Hudson.

“I had specimens of every animal from a Sudanese three-humped camel to a wonga,” said Mr. Hopkins, “but I have sold them all on account of a tiger. The collection was started one day when I went on bdard a ship from the East Indies to dine with the skip-

per, whom I had met abroad. After dinner he said he had a present for me by way of a real Bengal tiger. His name is Ackbar and a child can handle him, he added. - “The captain said it was young and only weighed 120 pounds. He also suggested that I should take his Indian jungle wallah, called Lazzim, with me to look after the tiger until it got used to having it eat out of my hand. “The next day,” said Mr. Hopkins, “I drove down to the pier in my car where I met the skipper and Lazzim with the tame tiger Ackbar. The Hindoo got into the car with me, and Ackbar followed like a poodle dog. When he stood up on the cushions and looked over at the engine my chauffeur suddenly got down from his seat. He said he wanted room to think. “Eventually we arrived safely at Irvington and put Ackbar in the zoo, but he made trouble by fighting with every animal there. He damaged all my furniture so that I was glad to sell him and the entire menagerie to a circus, with Lazzim to go as keeper.”